A copyright is put in place in order to protect the creator of a work from someone else taking credit for or benefiting from their work without permission. Copyrights protect businesses in Las Vegas from competitors taking their original work and making money off of it. When this happens, it is known as copyright infringement. There are many ways a copyright can be infringed on besides an outright copy of the work. It can be done by creating a new work that is derived from the original, by selling it or violating the moral rights of the copyright owner.
A settlement was reached recently in a business litigation lawsuit concerning copyright-infringement between the Associated Press and Meltwater U.S. Holdings Inc. Interestingly enough, after the settlement, the two companies plan to partner together to develop products related to AP content and online media analytics.
Meltwater began in Norway over a decade ago as a media monitoring service aimed at helping its clients keep track of what is said about them in the digital news. The company has since moved to San Francisco and operates in 27 countries.
Meltwater ran into trouble last year when they were sued by the Associated Press who claimed that they did not pay licensing fees that would enable them to legally resell content produced by the AP. The AP won their lawsuit, but Meltwater planned to appeal the federal judge’s decision.
The two companies recently reached a settlement and hope to be able to work together to grow their companies and expand into new markets.
Source: Las Vegas Sun, “AP, Meltwater settle copyright dispute,” July 29, 2013
